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At last, an opportunity to make some progress.

Out with the tools and within and hour the Cylinder Head with the Inlet Manifold still attached was carefully lifted from the car.

Then after a wipe over of the exposed head-gasket-block interfaces surfaces checked for problems. Yes, all four Cylinder Liners were level and flush. As flush as flush can be. All four failed my finger nail test in both directions across the block liners confirmed this. Previously my finger nail test has revealed proud liners. Not this time.

There was no indentations in the Fire Ring Areas of all four Combustion Chambers in the Cylinder Head. Also there was plenty of Cylinder Head metal material left should it need refacing as the depth of the U-Shaped recesses in all four of the Combustion Chambers shows. I have seen those completely machined / skimmed away on previous project cars.

Note in the images the "160" showing on the Piston Tops as one of the close up images show. Leaves me thinking is that for ZT 1.8T 160 Pistons or pure coincidence. Piston Top in #4 Cylinder was noticeably cleaner than the three others. However not to the extent that I've seen when working on other engines. Sometimes one Piston Top is much cleaner than the others. Rightly or wrongly, I assume that's the cleansing effect when coolant passes Fire Rings into the Combustion Chambers.

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...5&d=1576357294

I could not detect any Elastomer Seal damage on either side of the Gasket. There was what appeared to be Exhaust Gas marks on the WRONG side of the Gasket's Fire Rings. Not 100% sure of that observation.

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...6&d=1576357330

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...7&d=1576357360

All four Cylinder Liners flush with surrounding Cylinder Block material.

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...8&d=1576357420

"160" Clearly present on all four Piston Tops.

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...9&d=1576357453

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...0&d=1576357509

Close up of the U-Shaped Recess I check to see the extent of any head refacing processes in previous ownership. That is nice and deep so plenty of metal left there should a reface be necessary.

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...1&d=1576357576

160 stamped on the piston crown is unrelated to the ZT output, Also if you have a Rover 1.8T you have 150ps but still 160 stamped on the piston crown.

I believe the 160 reference is related to the build of the MGTF VVC 160 engine.

I like the way that the back of the cam cover just came away with the head ��:laugh::snowball:

More slow progress. Getting there though.

Making a start to remove the Sump on my "project" ZT-T 1.8T to facilitate fitting Cylinder Liner Shims. The large Tie Bar lower engine mount was in the way of a few of the various 10mm Bolts. It has four 15mm Bolts. Three came undone and removed easily. The fourth not so. Easily started and I used a flat socket drive spanner to quickly undo it. Bad move. There was not enough clearance and my ratchet spanner was held solid. I could only undo it which would make it held firmer with the limited clearance. I know, loosen the three bi-hex 14mm Bolts which fasten the off-side drive shaft sufficiently to allow the shaft to be moved away allowing removal of the final bolt. Close run thing. It worked without complete removal of the the three bi-hex 14mm bolts.

Clearly someone obviously had been at some of these bolts before. Two Engine to Gearbox bolts were missing. The middle bolt of the three holding the driveshaft support was not the OE bi-hex 14mm jobbie, but a plane six-flat 10mm Hex-head.

Soon had the sump removed. Gave it a severe clean later. One of the two threaded holes used when the long since removed in previous ownership Exhaust Bracket is bolted to the Sump, has a sheered off bolt remains inside. Flush so will be difficult for me to remove even with carefully applied heat.

The Oil Scavenge Pick Up Tube and Oil Rail will be removed later. Then I can tackle the Big Ends.

All the fourteen 10mm Sump Bolts ( Two long and twelve shorter lengths ) came undone with minimal effort. It was not necessary to lower the Exhaust Pipe to remove the Sump. It came away with a light tap with the Club Hammer and by holding it at a steep angle, ample clearance from the Exhaust Pipe so easily removed.

Removed the Oil Pick Up and Oil Rail from the underside of the engine. Just four 8mm Bolts to remove and gave the bottom of the engine and the removed components a clean up.

These images show the lower engine after removal and the cleaned up parts.

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...0&d=1577117984

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...1&d=1577118022

I can now access the bi-hex BIG-END Nuts and Bolts prior to extracting the Cylinder Liners. That will now be after Christmas.

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...2&d=1577118049

My poor 1.8T K-Series has had the guts stripped out of it.

Spent some of it under the car extracting the Piston-Con-Rod assemblies and the Cylinder Liners. Liners 2 and 3 were easy to remove but 1 and 4 were not. Firmly Stuck or seized in their locations.

I used a short length of 2 by 1 wood as a drift from below which did raise both a mere millimetre but further careful hammer blows on the wood showed no more progress raising them No 1 was clearly raised two millimetres whilst No 4 less than one.

Used a length of 10mm Steel Rod and modified it with a shallow step on one end using a disc in the Angle Grinder. My small Desk Vice held the rod for better control. Offered it up into the bottom of the Liner location and another short session with the Angle Grinder made it a better fit for the purpose.

Eventually took a spare 1.8 K-Series Cylinder Liner and was able to finely tailor the Rod against the spare Liner and was happy that the drift will work then. After about a dozen carefully controlled blows, up came No 1 Liner safely and was safely removed.

Then turned my attention to No 4 which meant have to drop the Exhaust Pipe from where it attaches to the Turbo Elbow.

These images show what was involved:~

It's started.. Good:~

https://the75andztclub.co.uk/forum/a...0&d=1577665159

Getting there :~

https://the75andztclub.co.uk/forum/a...1&d=1577665181

Fully raised :~

https://the75andztclub.co.uk/forum/a...2&d=1577665210

Lots of black stuff which NOs 2 and 3 did not have... much brighter shiny silver metal. I wonder why that black stuff is there,

https://the75andztclub.co.uk/forum/a...3&d=1577665226

No 4..The remainer ~ holding on stubbornly. At least it has started upwards using just some wood only ... so far. :~

https://the75andztclub.co.uk/forum/a...4&d=1577665246

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but that block is scrap I'm afraid, see my explanation as to why in the "what I did with my 75 ZT" thread.

Brian :xmas-smiley-008:

Rimmers have production line take off.......a little pricey for my tastes, but I'm sure if you contact Ron Mills at Best of British Rover, he would be able to sort you out at a more reasonable price ;)

LINK

I've been down this road before.........more than once or twice unfortunately, the other option is to source a good used block, preferable one which has been a 1400 is a former life.

Brian :D

Or this reinforced and pressure cast cylinder block which comes with the tapping for the turbo oil drain. Rimmers version doesn’t.

https://www.eliseparts.com/shop/engi...-engine-block/

My cunning plan continues.

If the liners are proving particularly tight to shift this is an indication itself the the top of the spigot where the liner locates has mushroomed significantly. Typical symptoms are initial movement of 1/4” (due to slight undercut on liner allows some relief) or so and then starting to bind.

How much liner drop do you have? (I assume less than the thickness of the shims?) The last engine I tried with sticky liners had perhaps .015” drop, as the owner just drove it to destruction. I made no attempt to repair and opted for an alternative good block instead.

No harm in trying with the shims, it’s only your time, and the k-series is so simple and quick to rebuild it’s worth a go especially if it’s your toy.

https://the75andztclub.co.uk/forum/a...3&d=1529667167

Good project; watching with interest are you going to fit MLS HG and strengthened oil rail when liners are lifted? I’ve never replaced the oil rail with a HG, but you’ve got it off anyway to access the liners in this case.